shades of cool
by BittersweetSonata
Summary: Darling heart, I've loved you from the start. (It's just you and I tonight, why don't you figure my heart out?)—gray/juvia
1. Chapter 1

**notes: **so like, i'm positively sure there's this trope/cliche of gray being a singer and stuff, but. i took the idea and basically just ran with it. or it ran and dragged me along behind it, whatever. same thing. probably gonna be some nalu in here, 'cause everybody knows i ship it so hard. also maybe gale and jerza. we'll see. **  
****dedication: **to indigohailstorm and the 1975. and maybe comfortable sweaters.

**summary: **He plays in bars after the sun goes down, and she just works in a tea shop. He is everything she isn't, and she's in love. (Darling heart, I've loved you from the start.)**  
disclaimer: **own nothing

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_{why don't you just figure my heart out?}_

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**i.**

Juvia Lockser watches as the raindrops splatter against the pavement outside. Small droplets of water run down the window, leaving tear trails on the glass panes. It's a dull day—all rain and no sunshine, the kind of day that makes people feel tired and exhausted even before they get out of bed. She should know, she hates the rain.

Business is slow in the shop today, even though today is the type of day that tea was definitely for. All she wants to do is curl up in a chair with a good book and a cup of Earl Grey, but that's bad for business.

Though, it's not like customers were just pouring in through the doors like the sky was pouring outside.

Unfortunately.

She doesn't have many friends, just three or four good ones that she met during high school and college. Well, then there's Gajeel—but he's on a completely different level for many reasons. One, he's her roommate and pays half the rent and the electric bill. Two, he's known her the longest and is probably her best friend. And three, he's kind of an intimidating guy and scares the living daylights out of most people.

She likes him anyway, though.

The blunette runs her finger along the lines in the wood of her desk and sighs. It's a quiet life—except when Gajeel blasts his heavy metal loud enough to wake the dead—but she's not the type of girl that parties hard and long or goes wild anyway. She's too shy, too socially 'inept' for that sort of thing. She doesn't think that she'd like it, either.

She tugs at the sleeves of her oversized sweater, pulling them down over her fingertips. Days like these are cold and the shop has a draft that the owner never seems to fix. That's okay though, because she usually wears clothing that covers her up—sweaters, skirts, boots, leggings, tights, sometimes even dresses. She's not such a big fan of showing a lot of skin.

Compared to most girls—outgoing, social, who make friends easily—her life is a rather mundane one.

But she's okay with that.

The rain starts to come down harder, and she is content just to watch the people outside.

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Juvia looks up from the television when the front door of her shared apartment opens. It's Friday night and she's wrapped up in a couple warm blankets, watching a romantic comedy. The room is almost dark—save for the small golden glow coming from the lamp on the side table—and she can still hear the rain falling outside.

Gajeel grunts and kicks off his boots.

"If this rain doesn't stop soon, there's gonna be a damn flood."

He slips off his coat and hangs it on the rack by the door, mumbling something under his breath. Juvia smiles a little at her gruff roommate as he heads to the bathroom—presumably to get a warm, clean towel and dry off.

Or hopefully take a shower, considering the fact that he worked at an autobody shop and she didn't really want grease and oil all over her brand new indigo towels.

"Juvia made some lasagna earlier and put the leftovers in the refrigerator. Gajeel wasn't home yet so Juvia went ahead and ate without him," she calls softly, then turns back to her movie.

He grunts and reappears about ten minutes later, shirtless and drying his wild hair with a towel. He comes to a stop behind the couch and she turns to glance up at him. It's still kind of dark, but she can see most of his silver piercings glinting in the dim lamplight. She likes to count them sometimes, even if she already knows how many there are.

He raises a brow at her. "Whaddya think you're doing sitting in the dark like this? You'll ruin your eyes. Turn on a damn light."

She smiles and shrugs. "Juvia likes to watch movies in the dark. It's like a home theater."

Gajeel rolls his eyes and turns on the matching lamp on the adjoining table. "If that's what you, I'll just take you to a movie on my next day off. Now, no more of this sittin' in the dark shit, ye hear?"

Juvia nods and hides her wide smile behind the pillow she's clutching to her chest.

No matter how rough and unapproachable he acts, Gajeel Redfox has a kind heart and warm soul. It's just hidden under layers of piercings and muscle and crude demeanor. But the point is, that it exists.

He sighs and heads off into the kitchen in search of the lasagna she'd mentioned earlier, but not two minutes later she hears him swear just before the microwave goes off. She blinks, and then returns to watching her movie once more.

Gajeel's cat—Patherlily—jumps up on the couch beside her and quickly buries himself in her pile of blankets. She giggles lightly and pats him on the head.

He's not very fond of storms or rainy weather. The thunder terrifies him.

Gajeel startles them both by stomping to his room and slamming the door. The apartment falls into silence—the only sounds being the pitter patter of rain outside and the low murmur of the television. Juvia glances down the hallway, and it's not long before the door bangs against the wall again. The next thing she knows, Gajeel is storming toward the front door, fully dressed and pulling on a clean leather jacket.

"Gajeel-kun, where are you going?" she questions sitting up a little straighter and glancing at the clock.

10:52 pm.

He turns and sends her a glare, though she knows it's not actually aimed at her and instead he's just angry. At what though, is the question.

Gajeel waves his phone around in a wild arch. "Shrimp just texted me saying that no one's able to pick up Bunny Girl from work, and that she's 'concerned about her well-being' since there's apparently some punk on the loose that's roughing women up. So she wants me to fuckin' do it."

Juvia tries hard not to smile—_really, really hard_—and so she settles for something else instead.

No use in making Gajeel any angrier.

(He's very much smitten with one Levy McGarden though, even if he doesn't know it yet.)

The cornflower-haired girl tosses her blankets off and stands. She's still dressed in what she was earlier—a beige sweater, white-collared shirt, pleated navy skirt, and polka dot tights—so she's okay to go.

"Juvia will accompany you, if you'd like."

Maybe he won't get into any fights, that way.

He stares at her long and hard for what seems like an eternity—so long that she starts to fidget and even begin to think about retracting her offer—but then he grunts.

"Sure, whatever. Just grab your boots and a coat and hurry up. I don't wanna be out in this shit all night."

She smiles, and he pretends not to notice.

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"Hey Bunny Girl. Get your shit so we can leave," is Gajeel's opening statement when they walk into the bar.

Juvia watches as Lucy Heartfilia's smile wavers upon hearing his voice, and when she turns around—hands planted firmly on her hips, golden hair pulled up into a side ponytail, turquoise blouse cut low, but head raised high—she rolls her eyes.

"Hello to you _too, _Gajeel. And if you didn't notice, I'm still on my shift?"

The blonde smirks slightly when he growls and sits himself down on a stool at the bar she's tending. Lucy's eyes light up when she spots Juvia, and she sends the girl a wide smile. She tucks some dull blue hair behind her ear and gives the blonde barmaid a small smile and a wave.

Juvia takes a seat next to Gajeel, and they wait for Lucy's shift to end at eleven-thirty. She can hear her friend mumbling under his breath, and it makes her smile. If he didn't at least care a _little _for the blonde, he wouldn't have even bothered coming.

She thinks Lucy knows that too.

There's something she's never quite been able to figure out though, and that's why Gajeel always calls the blonde 'bunny girl' instead of her name. She's asked about it before—because frankly, it was kind of unusual but then there was the fact that he gave all the girls in his life some kind of nickname if he 'didn't mind them'—but all she got from Lucy was an extremely exasperated sigh and the biggest eyeroll she'd ever seen in her life.

It was spectacular, but she still didn't find out what she wanted to know.

And when she questions Gajeel about it, he just starts laughing like it's some private joke between the two.

Lucy is one of her only female friends—one of her _only _friends—and she likes Lucy. The blonde is funny, smart, and almost always cheerful. She wants to be a writer—but at the present moment she's supporting herself by working at as a waitress during the day and a bartender at night. She wore slightly revealing clothes, but it didn't seem like she ever seemed to mind.

Juvia wishes she could be like that, sometimes.

Truthfully, she's not sure why she even came with Gajeel, other than the fact that she could visit with the blonde and perhaps help Gajeel's attitude a little. It wasn't like she drank—mainly because she _didn't. _

The sound of guitar strains catches her attention, and she looks over at the small stage in the corner of the bar. Fairy Tail usually had live performances—Gajeel even gave one once, _that_ went well—or bands playing. Except on Thursday night, because Thursday night was karaoke night and there would be blood if someone tried to change it.

But tonight is Friday night, and there's someone on the stage she's never seen before.

It's not like she can get a really good look at him anyway—but she'd most definitely be able to recognize him in the daylight. He's sitting down, but he looks tall. (And kind of muscular, she notes, cheeks stained pink.) He has dark, messy hair and dark eyes. They glint in the dim lighting like Gajeel's piercings.

She's the only one looking his way, and she's enraptured.

Then he starts to sing.

She thinks she might be in love.

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**end notes: **too lazy to proofread, i'll do it later. ah gajeel, your grace and eloquent vocabulary are such lovely things. by the way, i'm pretty much in love with the idea of gray being this kinda broken-down guy with great undiscovered musical talent, so.


	2. Chapter 2

**notes: **well i never said that gray _isn't _the bad-boy type, did i? snickers. anyway, yeah. thanks so much for all the reviews! **  
radio static: **seriously, if we don't find out who silver is to gray soon i don't know what i'll do. this is like the same thing with eren's basement and i _cannot. _(i have actually acquired quite a bit of patience over the years, but lemme tell you manga arcs will _seriously test _it like nothing you've ever experienced before.)

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_{you're just a fantasy girl, in an impossible world}_

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**ii.**

The ride to Lucy's home is mostly silent, save for the ever present sound of rain, the squeak of the windshield wipers, and an occasional grunt or two from Gajeel. Honestly it's kind of off-putting because usually her roommate is blasting his heavy metal or hard rock, and so not having any music playing just feels…unnatural.

Gajeel is a creature of habit, she has learned, and sometimes even he liked to have a period of silence.

Juvia is sure of one thing at least—and that's that Gajeel chose to take his car instead of his bike. And by 'bike' she means 'totally tricked out, badass, looks like trouble' motorcycle that her friend owns. Those aren't her words, rather they're a mashup of Gajeel's own and some of their friends' choice phrases.

He's picked Lucy up on it before, but usually those instances are on sunny days and not during the night when basically the whole of Magnolia is being drowned by the weather. She kind of likes riding on it too, though. Gajeel's taken her for a few rides—sometimes to get groceries, or to drop her off at work, etc.—and it always gives her a sort of giddy-high feeling that she's sure no drugs could replicate.

(Not that she's ever been on anything, or than the occasional aspirin pill for a headache, or that one time she had to take pain medication because she broke her ankle.)

When she's seated behind Gajeel with her arms wrapped tightly around his torso, helmet pulled down over her head but her hair still flying in the wind, she feels free. She feels _alive _and like she's flying.

And she doesn't feel like that often.

Juvia turns from watching the streetlights pass by at an almost blinding speed, and the water droplets racing down the window to look at Lucy. Her blonde friend is seated by the other window, chin propped against her fist. The bartender slash waitress doesn't live too far from her place of employment—usually just a ten minute drive—but tonight is not a nice night, and Gajeel is taking it a little bit slow.

She's thankful for that, too, because she knows how he can get sometimes.

"Hey Lucy," she begins quietly, catching the blonde's attention, "that guy…playing at Fairy Tail tonight…do you know who he is?"

Truthfully, she's been wondering ever since they left the place but she's shy, so that means it's hard for her to ask. But she really wants to know about him—his name, what he likes (because _she_ likes _him_), and things of that nature—and so she conquers her initial fear and just goes for it.

Lucy smiles, and Juvia almost swears that she sees a sparkle in the other girl's eyes. "Oh?"

Juvia fidgets with the sleeves of her sweater and watches Lucy tap her chin thoughtfully from her peripheral vision. The girl looks a little too happy and a lot less like she's actually thinking in Juvia's mind.

Finally, the blonde holds her finger up and grins. "Aha! I do know!"

Then, she leans over the space in the middle, closer to Juvia, and covers her mouth with her hand. "But the _real _question is, why do _you _want to know?"

The quiet girl can feel her temperature spike and her cheeks color. She turns her head away in embarrassment, letting her cornflower-colored locks hide her face. "J-Juvia was just wondering. He has a nice voice…a-and…"

Lucy laugh gleefully and pulls back. "C'mon now, don't be shy! I'm sorry," her brown eyes still twinkle though, and Juvia thinks she knows what's coming before it actually happens. "Do you…_like _him, perhaps?"

Her suspicions are confirmed, but even though she knew it was bound to happen, she can't cover up her embarrassment at being found out. Lucy laughs in pure delight and clasps her hands.

Juvia's pretty sure that the blonde has been spending _way _too much time around Mirajane Strauss.

"Hey, hey—our Juvia has a crush! Congratulations!" Lucy pats her arm and smiles. "Hm, let's see now…his name's Gray Fullbuster, I think. Natsu knows him—though I'm not sure that they get along very well. He's scheduled to perform on Mondays and Fridays, I think. But he just comes into the bar when it's open on some nights, sometimes. I can remember serving him a time or three," she twirls some of her blonde hair around her finger, "He has a pretty hardcore taste when it comes to alcohol, let me tell you."

She pauses in her musings, and rubs her chin. "I think that's all I know about him, though. Sorry I can't tell you any more than that."

Juvia gives her a small smile. "It's okay. You've told Juvia more than she knew about Gray before."

"Well, I actually do know _one _more thing about him," Lucy starts, a grin slowly spreading across her face.

The blue-haired girl leans in a little closer, waiting for what her friend is about to say.

"He's like, super hot!"

Juvia's face almost collides with the car seat. Lucy chuckles and waves a hand. "And his muscles, _damn, _don't even get me _started. _Like, you just have to appreciate a guy who works out like that. I've never seen—well, aside from Natsu, and maybe Laxus, and okay maybe also Gajeel—,"

The latter grunts suddenly, causing both his passengers to glance up at him from the backseat. Gajeel looks decidedly grumpy and slightly uncomfortable. "What the hell is this? We aren't in high school anymore. And my car isn't some kind of fuckin' gossip center for talking about boys and what to wear to prom."

Juvia and Lucy glance at each other, than back at Gajeel, and then back to each other again.

Then, they burst into laughter.

The former also concludes that Lucy's been hanging out with Cana again.

And Gajeel silently swears that he will never, ever in a million years take Lucy Heartfilia home from work again. Or at least let his roommate come with them. It was a terrible idea and he should have _known. _

(But that's a lie, because he is—in the eloquent words of his friends and Cana—'whipped.')

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Juvia makes sure to be at Fairy Tail the next Monday night, and then the Friday after that.

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**end notes: **you cannot tell me that you don't like gajeel. not even a little bit. and apparently i've grown attached to him without even realizing. (y'know who else has a motorcycle? well you'll find out next chapter.)


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